


Bardic Comfort

by ladybug114



Category: BomBARDed (Podcast)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Bonding, Fluff, Gen, MotA 2018, Splash loves his students and they love him, march of the arts 2018
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-22
Updated: 2018-08-22
Packaged: 2019-07-01 04:28:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,347
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15766608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladybug114/pseuds/ladybug114
Summary: Symbol has a nightmare. His bards try to help.





	Bardic Comfort

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the 1 year anniversary of BomBARDed, and for the March of the Arts gift exchange in the bard discord! Happy MotA, Alice, hope you like this!!
> 
> Alice requested some of Chaos Sauce bonding with Splash, and I hope I did that prompt justice!

"Good form, Raz'ul!" Symbol shouted, watching his students proudly. They were traveling back from school when their carriage was stopped by two bandits (normal bandits this time), and Symbol figured it was the perfect opportunity for the three bards to practice their fighting skills. And so far, they were definitely impressing him. The fight looked like it would be over at any minute, and they could finally get back on their way.

Right as Symbol was starting to turn towards the carriage, however, a strange robed figure stepped out of the woods on the side of the road, seeming to materialize from nowhere. Before Symbol had a chance to react, the figure lifted both hands, and a dim light rushed from its hands, heading straight towards Symbol. Instantly, he realized that he was completely paralyzed, unable to move or take any action at all.

Almost at the same moment, more robed figures stepped from the woods. 

Three of them approached Randy, who had just knocked out one of the bandits, and effectively cornered him, cutting him off from his friends. Randy was fast, but three human-sized figures were too much for even him to keep up with. He dispatched one figure, but while he focused on the second, the third managed to strike him on the head, hard.

Symbol watched in horror, unable to move, as Randy collapsed, not moving, blood already pooling on the ground around his head.

As if in a trance, Symbol's attention turned to Yashee, who was facing two figures of her own. She was strong, and larger than them, but they were fast. One of the figures seemed to be the same magic user who had paralyzed Symbol, and it managed to cast the same spell on Yashee, leaving her vulnerable to attack. The other figure placed its hands on her, and she collapsed, her eyes rolling back in her head, her chest still.

Symbol wanted to scream, he wanted to run, he wanted to _help_ , but he could only turn his attention to Raz'ul, who was facing only one figure.

This figure, however, was the largest of the group, more orc-sized than humanoid, and it carried a massive sword that it wielded with deadly accuracy.

Raz'ul fought valiantly, tears streaming down his face at the sight of his best friends on the ground, but there was nothing he could do. He faltered only once, trying to strum something on Usumptin, and that was the only opening that the figure needed. Raz'ul sank slowly to his knees, blood pouring from the wound in his side.

And then, almost as quickly as they had come, the figures vanished into the woods, and the spell on Symbol was lifted. He knew that he should go after the robed figures, but his feet were already carrying him to Raz'ul.

Frantically, Symbol fell to his knees, pressing his hands to the wound, preparing to cast a spell, trying to repair at least some of the damage, trying to save at least one of his students. Right as he opened his mouth, he was stopped by a hand weakly grasping his sleeve.

Raz'ul, his eyes barely open and clouded with pain. "Splash. It's... it's no use," he choked out, and his cheeks were damp with tears.

"No," Symbol said, not taking his hands off the wound. "No, Raz'ul, you're going to be fine, I promise."

"Thanks... thanks for being our teacher," Raz'ul whispered, his eyes slipping closed.

"No!" Symbol said again, more forcefully this time, but Raz'ul's eyes stayed closed. 

He had failed. He had never been what they needed, and now they were dead, three lives snuffed out too early, and Symbol was powerless to stop it, unable to save them, unable to save anyone—

~~

Symbol woke with a start, gasping for air, sweat pouring down his face, and fumbled for his Ira Glass, hands shaking. "Raz'ul," he whispered, frantic. "Raz'ul, wake up, are you there?"

After a moment, where Symbol could feel his heart pounding in his chest, a groggy voice answered his frantic calls. "Splash? That you?"

Symbol let out a breath, his head falling to his chest. "Yeah, it's me."

"It's the middle of the night, Splash. Is everything okay?"

"Yeah," Symbol replied, fumbling for words. "Uh, are Yashee and Randy there?"

There was a pause, and then Raz'ul responded, "Um, yeah? They're asleep, probably, I saw them before bed, but that was a couple hours ago... do you need me to wake them up?"

"No, no," Symbol said, still trying to think of an excuse for why he called. "I, uh, didn't realize how late it was, I guess. I'll... I'll see the three of you at breakfast?"

"Yeah, sure thing," Raz'ul responded, but he sounded unsure. "Get some sleep, okay, Splash?"

"Of course. Goodnight, Raz'ul."

"Night."

Symbol kept the Ira Glass clutched in his hand long after it went silent, and he stayed awake most of the night, finally falling into a fitful and dreamless sleep right before sunrise.

~~

“Randy! Hey, Randy, wake up!”

Randy groaned, refusing to open his eyes. “Go ‘way, I’m sleeping,” he mumbled, turning his back on the voice that had rudely interrupted his sleep.

“Come on, man, we’ve got important Chaos Sauce business to discuss,” another voice said, a bit calmer than the first.

Randy groaned again, and finally forced his eyes open. Yashee and Raz’ul were standing over his bed, grinning at him. Weakly glaring at both of them, Randy turned his eyes to the window and realized that the sun hadn’t even come up yet. “Come on, guys,” he said, rubbing his eyes and trying to wake himself up, “you know I never wake up before breakfast.”

“But this is important!” Yashee insisted. “Raz’ul has something to tell us and it needs to be _before_ breakfast.”

“Alright, fine, I’m awake,” Randy said, finally sitting up and blinking blearily at his two friends. “What’s going on?”

Raz’ul sighed, sitting down next to him on the bed, and Yashee settled herself on the floor, so that all three of them were as close to eye level as they could get. “It’s about Splash,” Raz’ul said after a moment, his gaze fixed on the carpet.

Randy blinked. “Splash? What’s wrong with Splash?”

“He called me on my Ira Glass in the middle of the night last night, and he sounded kind of… kind of off, I guess.”

Yashee frowned. “You know he works late, do you think maybe he just didn’t realize what time it was?”

“No, yeah, that’s actually what he said it was,” Raz’ul answered, looking up from the carpet, “but I could tell something was going on.”

“How?” Randy asked, already feeling much more awake. “I can pretty much never tell what he’s thinking.”

Raz’ul sighed, rubbing a hand on the back of his neck. “I know, which is why I was unsure at first, but something was bothering me about the call, and, well, I figured out what it was.” He paused, taking a moment to look at Randy, and then at Yashee, before continuing, “I called him Splash the whole time and he didn’t correct me once.”

Randy blinked in surprise again. He had answered to Splash a few times, of course, but only when he was really distracted, and he always corrected himself immediately afterwards. Letting Raz’ul refer to him that way for an entire conversation was very unusual.

“Okay, yeah, that’s a problem,” Yashee said, still frowning. “But if something is bothering him, how do we get him to talk about it?”

“I don’t know if we can,” Raz’ul said after a moment. “He doesn’t talk to us about personal stuff, like, ever. Maybe we can just try to be nicer to him today, try to make him a little bit happier?”

“And maybe he’ll decide to open up if he’s feeling better,” Yashee agreed, smiling.

Randy was less sure about that plan. Splash didn’t talk about his feelings, _ever_. He barely talked to them about personal things at all, didn’t ask them questions about their pasts and definitely never talked about his own. Randy, honestly, was okay with that arrangement, but he knew that Yashee and Raz’ul were a bit different. More emotional, cared more about relating to people.

If Splash was like them, it would be a perfect plan. But, well, he wasn’t.

“Um, I’m not sure,” Randy said, holding back a wince as Yashee and Raz’ul turned to him, the smiles already starting to fade from their faces. “I just don’t think we can get him to open up,” he continued, plowing ahead. “Maybe we should just… distract him in some way, so that he forgets about whatever bad thing was happening last night?”

“Maybe you’re right,” Raz’ul sighed, and Yashee nodded too. “But how do you suggest we distract him?”

“Oh, I think I have a couple of ideas,” Randy said, a devious smile growing on his face.

~~

Symbol was exhausted as he walked into the school’s dining hall to meet his students for breakfast. He had almost decided to sleep through breakfast, to meet them later for class, but something inside him was still holding on to his nightmare. He _needed_ to see them.

He needed a cup of coffee, too, but that could wait.

As he walked into the dining hall, however, Symbol couldn’t find them anywhere. They weren’t at their usual table, they weren’t ordering food, they weren’t talking to any of the other students at breakfast, they just… weren’t there.

Symbol felt something start to clench up in his chest, but he tried to push past the feeling. They were never the most punctual, he knew that. Randy tended to sleep in, and the other two would never leave without him. They were just late, that was all.

When five minutes passed with no sign of them, though, Symbol got a bit desperate. His eyes scanning the other students in the dining hall, he finally stood up and walked towards one of them.

“Tabitha,” he said, trying to smile at her but probably not succeeding, “Any chance you’ve talked to Yashee today?”

“Um, why?” Tabitha asked, looking up at him curiously. The different groups didn’t interact often, especially not with other teachers, but his bards had practically adopted Tabitha into Chaos Sauce after learning about Gareth and Ilda.

“Yashee, Raz’ul, and Randy were supposed to meet me for breakfast this morning, but I haven’t seen them yet.”

Tabitha’s mouth, much to Symbol’s surprise, lifted into a smile. “Actually, yes, I saw the three of them heading to the training room earlier, maybe you could look for them there?”

“The training room?” Symbol asked, surprise coloring his voice. “Why would they be there?”

Tabitha just shrugged, turning back to her food, seemingly ignoring him.

With a huff, Symbol turned away and left the dining hall, heading for the training room. Why would they be there? They always had breakfast together, and Symbol knew for a fact that Yashee hated training on an empty stomach. But, if Tabitha said that they were in the training room, then they probably were.

However, when Symbol stepped into the training room only a minute later, it appeared to be empty. “Yashee?” he called out, spinning in circles to look around the room. “Raz’ul? Randy? Come on, we have work to do, where are you guys?”

Silence.

Symbol frowned, but then his eyes caught a note stuck to the inside of the doors, visible only from inside the room.

_Dear Splash,_

_Welcome to the great Chaos Sauce scavenger hunt! We hope you enjoy this trip down memory lane, and hopefully you can find us quickly enough so that we don’t miss any of our classes…_

_Find your second clue at the home of Yashee’s new best friend!_

_Signed,_

_Chaos Sauce_

A scavenger hunt? Symbol didn’t know how or why his bards had put this together, and he was honestly feeling a bit annoyed. He just wanted to see them, to make certain that they were okay, and then to get on with their classes. But it seemed like they had put effort into this, and Symbol honestly believed that if they didn’t want to be found, he wouldn’t be able to find them without following their clues.

With another sigh, Symbol read over the note a second time, and then headed towards the stables.

~~

For almost an hour, the clues led Symbol on a crisscross journey across campus. He found clues in classrooms, in the dining hall, the nurse’s office, the library… and each clue referenced a memory that the four of them had shared together. As he read each clue, he found himself enjoying the scavenger hunt more and more. After the night he had had, it was refreshing to be reminded of the joys that his students had brought him, even as they continually got themselves into trouble.

Finally, a clue that had been held in Zil’s one remaining arm led to the dorm rooms. When he arrived outside of Yashee, Raz’ul, and Randy’s room, he could hear talking and laughing coming from inside. With a smile growing on his face, Symbol pushed open the door.

“Splash!” Yashee shouted, immediately jumping up from her place on the floor. “You did it!”

Raz’ul and Randy were there, too, grinning up at him, and so was Tabitha, who was laughing at Yashee’s excitement.

Symbol could feel something swelling in his chest at the sight of his bards, _all_ of his bards. “What was the point of all this?” he asked, smiling right back at them.

Raz’ul’s grinned turned soft. “We were worried about you, Splash,” he said quietly. “So we wanted to give you something to smile about.”

Symbol wasn’t sure what he had done to deserve them. Raz’ul must have picked up on his panic during the night, and had convinced his friends to get up early and put together this elaborate hunt, just to make him feel better.

“Well, thank you,” he said, putting a hand on Yashee’s shoulder and grinning at Raz’ul. “But it’s Symbol."

**Author's Note:**

> Check out my [tumblr](https://aubreyisbi.tumblr.com/)!


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